Fed Evaluates CFPB's Consumer Response Unit

Fed Evaluates CFPB's Consumer Response Unit

posted by Sharon Bahr
on Tue, 10/16/2012 - 11:59am

The Federal Reserve Board’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) recently released its Evaluation of the CFPB’s Consumer Response Unit. The OIG reviewed various CFPB documents for its Consumer Response Unit in an effort to: (1) evaluate the process the CFPB has established to receive, respond to, and track consumer complaints; (2) assess the CFPB’s coordination with federal and state agencies regarding the processing and referral of complaints; and (3) determine the extent to which the CFPB is assessing its effectiveness and timeliness in responding to consumer complaints.

The OIG found that, overall, the CFPB has a reasonable process to receive, respond to, and track consumer complaints. However, the report identified the following areas that the CFPB can improve its processes and strengthen controls in its Consumer Response Unit:

Accuracy of manual data entry of consumer complaints;

Consistency of the complaint management system data;

Lack of a finalized agency-wide privacy policy;

Lack of a comprehensive quality assurance program; and

Lack of a centralized tracking system for quality assurance reviews.

The OIG provided several recommendations the CFPB can employ to improve these areas of its Consumer Response Unit.